Taurine\u27s effect on cocaine reward and neurogenesis in the adolescent male rat brain.

Adolescence is a developmentally critical transition from childhood to adulthood including both maturation of the body and the brain. Neuroplastic changes result in dynamic organization of the brain during adolescence, leaving them vulnerable to development of mental illness and drug-seeking behavior. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the psychostimulant cocaine is the second most popular illicit drug in the world. Cocaine, amongst having many detrimental effects, has shown to also decrease hippocampal neurogenesis, resulting in decreased neuroplasticity and cognitive dysfunction. Previous students in our laboratory have shown that treatment of adult male rats with the essential β-amino acid taurine (2-aminoethanesulfonic acid) has been effective in attenuating the reward value of cocaine in a conditioned place preference paradigm, independent of hormonal status. Taurine has also been shown to be a neuroprotectant and neurogenic. In these studies, taurine was tested as a protectant against cocaine reward by increasing neurogenesis in the brain in adolescent males. Using a conditioned place preference (CPP) cocaine reward paradigm, taurine was found to be ineffective in attenuating cocaine preference in adolescent males and was found to possess rewarding properties itself. Bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) was then used to determine if taurine affected neurogenesis in the hippocampus after cocaine treatment. This study determined that taurine was neither protective against cocaine’s rewarding properties or have a significant impact on neurogenesis in the hippocampus of adolescent male rats. Further studies should be performed to determine which mechanisms of plasticity taurine may be affecting to support the rewarding properties of cocaine. Since sex differences exist in taurine therapeutic value, the effects of taurine on the adolescent female brain should be evaluated as well

Postharvest heat treatments to inhibit Penicillium digitatum growth and maintain quality of Mandarin (Citrus reticulata blanco)

Use of fungicides is a common practice as a postharvest treatment to control fruit decay. Nowadays, environment-friendly technologies, such as heat treatments, are viable replacements. This study evaluated the effects of post-harvest heat treatments (traditional and microwave-assisted) on mandarins intentionally inoculated with Penicillium digitatum. For the studied heat treatments, the target temperature was 50C, which was held for 2.5 min. After heating, mandarins were cooled and stored at 25C for 13 days. MW treatments effectively prevented mold growth during storage, while HW only delayed it. Control mandarins (without treatment) showed the highest significant weight loss. Neither thermal treatment nor storage affected fruit juice pH (p \u3e 0.05). Treated mandarins had a significantly lower vitamin C content than control fruits throughout storage, and all mandarins lost firmness by the 13th day (p \u3c 0.05). Control and MW-treated mandarins had lower citric acid content; however, they retained color, total soluble solids (TSS) and had a higher maturity index. While HW mandarins did not have changes in citric acid content, they had higher TSS, and lower maturity index. MW-assisted treatments were effective at inactivating molds and helped retain some nutritional and physical-chemical characteristics of mandarins. However, juice of MW-treated mandarins was not preferred by judges in the sensory tests, the juice was rated lower than that obtained from the other treatment. Postharvest heat treatments may constitute a helpful application to control mandarin’ fungal decay

Gastrointestinal stromal tumor as cause of acute abdominal pain in a patient with neurofibromatosis type 1: case report and literature review

Acute abdomen is a common and sometimes dramatic clinical condition, which can be fatal if diagnosis is not made in time. There are many etiologies for acute abdominal pain; therefore, the diagnostic approach should be based on clinical assessment, including laboratory and image studies. Neurofibromatosis 1 (NF1) is an autosomal dominant condition, characterized by cutaneous pigmentation and tumor formation along nerves in the brain, skin and other organs, the gastrointestinal stromal tumors are rare mesenchymal neoplasms associated with NF1. The close correlation between both pathologies is well known, and the clinical relevance relies on the different pathogenesis from sporadic gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST), with important therapeutic implications as the use of imatinib prior or after surgery, regarding the individual context of the patient. This case report illustrates the management of an NF1 patient presenting with acute abdomen to the emergency room and follow-up

Cytochrome P450 from Plants: Platforms for Valuable Phytopharmaceuticals

Cytochrome P450 enzymes are important for biotechnology due to their capacity to modify diverse secondary metabolites that may produce chemicals with pharmacological properties. Most terpenes, flavonoids and alkaloids require P450 catalytic functions to reach their biological activity. In the last ten years, several efforts have focused on the expression and production of these three main types of secondary metabolites in engineered microorganisms and plants using P450 of ethnobotanical origin. Despite this, several P450 coding sequences from plant sources are discovered yearly but only a few have been screened by functional genomics. Amongst them, only a few have shown potentials for use in sustainable production of novel drugs and highly valuable products. Cytochrome P450 involvement in the biosynthesis of these products is discussed in this work.Keywords: Biotechnological platforms, Cytochrome P450, Phytopharmaceuticals, Yield improvement, Terpenes, Flavonoids, Alkaloids, Microbial expressio

Wide-bandgap InAs/InGaP quantum-dot intermediate band solar cells

Current prototypes of quantum-dot intermediate band solar cells suffer from voltage reduction due to the existence of carrier thermal escape. An enlarged sub-bandgap EL would not only minimize this problem, but would also lead to a bandgap distribution that exploits more efficiently the solar spectrum. In this work we demonstrate InAs/InGaP QD-IBSC prototypes with the following bandgap distribution: EG = 1.88 eV, EH = 1.26 eV and EL > 0.4 eV. We have measured, for the first time in this material, both the interband and intraband transitions by means of photocurrent experiments. The activation energy of the carrier thermal escape in our devices has also been measured. It is found that its value, compared to InAs/GaAs-based prototypes, does not follow the increase in EL. The benefits of using thin AlGaAs barriers before and after the quantum-dot layers are analyzed

Cirugía derivativa más radioterapia intraoperatoria y externa en el carcinoma de páncreas localizado e irresecable

Presentamos una serie de 25 casos de carcinomas de páncreas localmente avanzados e irresecables, sin metástasis a distancia, tratados con cirugía derivativa, radioterapia intraoperatoria e irradiación externa: 18 tumores de cabeza (16 con ictericia obstructiva) y 7 de cuerpo. Se realizó derivación biliar en 18 y gastroyeyunostomía en 19. La mortalidad operatoria fue nula, con una morbilidad del 16%. A largo plazo se produjeron 3 hemorragias digestivas, 2 ictericias obstructivas, una colangitis y una obstrucción intestinal. Se obtuvo un 72% de control local de la enfermedad y todos los fallecidos por progresión tumoral desarrollaron metástasis hepáticas y/o peritoneales. Presentaban dolor pancreático 22 pacientes y 20 experimentaron remisión del mismo en una a 2 semanas. La analgesia fue definitiva en 12 y reapareció el dolor tardíamente en ocho. La supervivencia media fue de 9 meses (rango 4-24). La revisión de la literatura pone de manifiesto la indicación de la radioterapia externa tanto en el carcinoma de páncreas irresecable y no metastásico como en los resecados. La asociación de radioterapia intraoperatoria tiene, así mismo, un papel importante en cuanto a supervivencia, paliación del dolor y de la progresión local. El 5-fluorouracilo asociado al tratamiento radioterápico prolonga significativamente la supervivencia con una morbilidad razonable

MAP entropy estimation: applications in robust image filtering

We introduce a new approach for image filtering in a Bayesian framework. In this case the probability density function (pdf) of thelikelihood function is approximated using the concept of non-parametric or kernel estimation. The method is based on the generalizedGaussian Markov random fields (GGMRF), a class of Markov random fields which are used as prior information into the Bayesian rule, whichprincipal objective is to eliminate those effects caused by the excessive smoothness on the reconstruction process of images which arerich in contours or edges. Accordingly to the hypothesis made for the present work, it is assumed a limited knowledge of the noise pdf,so the idea is to use a non-parametric estimator to estimate such a pdf and then apply the entropy to construct the cost function for thelikelihood term. The previous idea leads to the construction of Maximum a posteriori (MAP) robust estimators, since the real systems arealways exposed to continuous perturbations of unknown nature. Some promising results of three new MAP entropy estimators (MAPEE) forimage filtering are presented, together with some concluding remarks

Planck pre-launch status: Low Frequency Instrument calibration and expected scientific performance

We give the calibration and scientific performance parameters of the Planck Low Frequency Instrument (LFI) measured during the ground cryogenic test campaign. These parameters characterise the instrument response and constitute our best pre-launch knowledge of the LFI scientific performance. The LFI shows excellent $1/f$ stability and rejection of instrumental systematic effects; measured noise performance shows that LFI is the most sensitive instrument of its kind. The set of measured calibration parameters will be updated during flight operations through the end of the mission.Comment: Accepted for publications in Astronomy and Astrophysics. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 2010 (acceptance date: 12 Jan 2010